The world as a whole has warmed about 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1880. Arctic temperatures have risen twice that amount during the same time period. The most recent year analyzed, October 2015 to September 2016, was 3.5C warmer than the early 1900s, according to the 2016 Arctic Report Card. Northern Canada, Svalbard, Norway and Russia’s Kara Sea reached an astounding 14C (25F) higher than normal last fall.

Scientists refer to these dramatic physical changes as “Arctic amplification,” or positive feedback loops. It’s a little bit like compound interest. A small change snowballs, and Arctic conditions become much less Arctic, much more quickly.

“After studying the Arctic and its climate for three-and-a-half decades,” Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data center, wrote recently. “I have concluded that what has happened over the last year goes beyond even the extreme.”

"... Scientists track the number of “freezing-degree days,” a running seasonal tally of the amount of time it’s been cold enough for water to freeze. The 2016-2017 winter season has seen a dramatic shortfall in coldness—more than 20 percent below the average, a record..."

"Scientists are getting better at linking extreme events, such as wildfires, to climate change

"While scientists have known for decades that changes in some classes of extreme weather would result from climate change, the science of attributing individual extreme events to global warming has only advanced significantly in recent years to cover a greater number of extremes and achieve a greater speed of scientific analysis," the paper states. "Unfortunately, the communication of this science outside the extreme event research community has, with a few notable exceptions, not fully reflected these advances.

"The media, politicians and some scientists outside this area of research still often claim that 'we can’t attribute any individual event to climate change'," the paper continues. "This may have been true in the 1990s, but it is no longer the case."

... However, in response to a deadly wildfire last month in Portugal and forest-fire initiated evacuations in Spain, it issued the following statement: "Climate change made the intensity and frequency of such extreme heat at least twice as likely in Belgium, at least four times as likely in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and central England and at least 10 times as likely in Portugal and Spain."

... Global consumption dropped 1.7 percent last year compared with an average 1.9 percent yearly increase from 2005 to 2015, according to BP. China, which accounted for about half of the coal burned in the world, used 1.6 percent less of the fuel, compared with an average 3.7 percent annual expansion in the 11 preceding years.

“At the heart of this shift are structural, long-term factors,” Dale said. These include “the increasing availability and competitiveness of natural gas and renewable energy, combined with mounting government and societal pressure to shift away from coal towards cleaner, lower-carbon fuels.”

The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention....

But as the zooplankton experiment showed, greater volume and better quality might not go hand-in-hand. In fact, they might be inversely linked. As best scientists can tell, this is what happens: Rising CO2 revs up photosynthesis, the process that helps plants transform sunlight to food. This makes plants grow, but it also leads them to pack in more carbohydrates like glucose at the expense of other nutrients that we depend on, like protein, iron and zinc...."

... The world’s second-biggest economy, which has vowed to cap its carbon emissions by 2030 and curb worsening air pollution, is the latest to join countries such as the United Kingdom and France seeking to phase out vehicles using gasoline and diesel...."

Record-breaking hot summers will be the new normal within 20 years due to human-influenced climate change, according to a new study co-authored by the president of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at the University of Victoria.

Climatologist Francis Zwiers found that sweltering summers have become at least 70 times more likely over the past four decades. The research shows that by 2050, virtually every summer will be hotter than any experienced to date...”

"'It's not impossible': Western Canada's risk of water shortages rising

Communities where water has been plentiful are not immune to water crises as climate changes...

Three years of drought mean Cape Town could become the first major city in the world to run out of water. As the countdown to "Day Zero" continues in South Africa, Canadian scientists are warning that some communities here could face their own water crisis in the not-so-distant future.

Cape Town's Day Zero, when the city says it will be forced to shut off the taps and ration water to its four million citizens, was initially expected to come in April. Water conservation efforts have now pushed the date to late August, but the day the taps run dry is still coming unless the region gets some serious precipitation. ..

It is a stark reality that in a country known for its abundance of fresh water, climate scientists are seeing changes in the ways our water flows. And it's a problem, in terms of providing people with water throughout the year.

Last year there was a record amount of snowfall in the Fortress Mountain region, but Pomeroy says he and his research team were surprised when all that snow wasn't enough to prevent a drought on the southern part of the prairies.

Pomeroy says a warming climate means the mountain snowpack is melting faster and earlier. As a result, the water is moving through river basins more quickly than in the past and leaving them parched by the end of summer..."